‘I Never Lent You My Flesh!’ Says Giant PETA Fish Ahead of Christian Fast

For Immediate Release:
February 21, 2023

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

In time for Ash Wednesday tomorrow, PETA is potentially reigniting its feud with Jimmy’s Famous Seafood, this time through a sky-high message near the restaurant urging everyone to keep fish off their plates during Lent and, for cod’s sake, throughout the rest of the year.

“PETA is encouraging people to observe a Lent that’s kind to all, particularly in light of Jimmy’s Famous Seafood’s tasteless jokes about killing sea animals,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “From fish-free fillets to mock lobster and no-crab cakes, today’s tasty vegan options are causing a sea change that makes it easy to show mercy to animals during this period of self-reflection and beyond.”

Animals are not mentioned in Genesis 1:29, which states that God provides “every seed-bearing plant” and “every tree whose fruit contains seed” as food for humans. Fish are intelligent and sensitive beings who experience pain, think, and deserve to live. They share knowledge, have cultural traditions, and communicate with one another using low-frequency sounds that humans can’t hear. Some woo potential partners by singing to them or creating intricate works of art. Despite all this, more fish are killed for food each year than all other animals combined. They’re impaled, crushed, suffocated, or cut open and gutted—often while they’re conscious. In addition, 38 million tons of other aquatic animals are unintentionally caught each year to satisfy humans’ demand for “seafood.”

The owners of Jimmy’s Famous Seafood infamously started a “billboard war” with PETA and have a history of mocking the animals they kill and serve as food. PETA’s billboard is located at 6400 Holabird Ave., just a two-minute walk from Jimmy’s and less than a mile from several other fish-serving eateries as well as two Catholic churches.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—offers a list of delicious faux-fish options, such as Gardein’s f’sh filets, Sophie’s Kitchen’s Fish Fillets, and Good Catch Plant-Based Crab Cakes, as well as a free vegan starter kit.

For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.